LACROSSE; Cradle of a Sport Has Crossed the Gender Line

By AIMEE BERG

Published: May 13, 2007

On the Onondaga Nation near Syracuse, Jeanne Shenandoah adores lacrosse. All eight of her brothers played it. She scours the papers for scores of the local indoor team. But when it comes to women playing the game that her Iroquois forefathers originated centuries ago, the conversation turns tense.

''This is a precious, sacred area for me,'' she said in a room at the Onondaga Communications Office where she works. ''To our community and families, lacrosse is a sacred medicine.''

To the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Tuscarora and Mohawk -- the nations that comprise the Iroquois confederacy that once controlled most of present-day New York -- lacrosse was a gift from the creator to be played by men for healing purposes. It continues to be played in ceremonies and at the request of any individual or clan, or for the entire confederacy, anyone who needs its curative powers. Because of its deep, spiritual significance, women are not even allowed to touch a stick.

Unlike the male-only medicine game, the women's game does not allow checking, the sticks are plastic (not hickory), there are boundary lines and traditional rites are not performed.

''I understand it's a different game,'' Shenandoah said of women's lacrosse. ''I understand there's no contact. But the basic idea is to mimic the game. They're not putting anything over on me.''

But 10 minutes away from the heart of the Iroquois confederacy where Shenandoah works, there is a different attitude toward Iroquois women playing lacrosse.

On April 29, Syracuse's sophomore goalie, Amber Hill, of the Tuscarora tribe, made 13 saves to help the Orange defeat top-seeded Georgetown, 12-7, and win the Big East title, earning Syracuse an automatic berth in the N.C.A.A. tournament.

Today, when Syracuse faces Vanderbilt in the first round, Hill may become the first Iroquois woman to compete in the Division I lacrosse playoffs.

''You cannot believe how it felt to see Amber succeed,'' said Sandy Jemison, 55, who drove 180 miles to the Carrier Dome from her home on the Seneca reserve near Irving, N.Y., to watch the Big East title game.

Twenty years ago, Jemison was caught in the struggle between tradition and opportunity.

She learned to play lacrosse in high school, where classmates assumed that because of her heritage she already knew the sport. After college, in 1984, she joined a fledgling all-Iroquois women's team that competed internationally and was supported alongside the newly formed Iroquois Nationals men's team. (The men are now sponsored by Nike and finished fourth at the 2006 world championships.)

But in 1987, while Jemison and her teammates were preparing to play an exhibition in Syracuse, Onondaga clan mothers threatened to lie down on the field in protest. Rather than defy the wishes of the elders, the team disbanded.

''My heart broke into a thousand pieces,'' said Kari Miller, a member of that team. ''For me, that was my opportunity to go traveling and play the game I loved. We got a taste of it, then it was taken away.''

Jemison returned to the Seneca reserve determined to develop local talent and foster confidence among girls, who might then be encouraged to remain in school or look for other educational opportunities through the sport.

Eventually, in 1993, her ''little scrub team'' defied the odds and won a division title at the Midwest Schoolgirls Lacrosse Association championship, ahead of larger schools from Illinois, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and western New York.

By 2005, there was enough talent from the United States and Canada to create an all-Iroquois team for the Cup of Nations, an international exhibition for girls 15 to 18 years old, held in conjunction with the quadrennial women's World Cup.

The team was called First Nations because it was not officially endorsed by leaders of the Iroquois confederacy. The players took pride in seeing the purple-and-white flag with the distinctive Hiawatha belt pattern flying next to those of the federation's member nations.

''Having that flag up there was a symbol of what we were playing for -- to be recognized,'' said midfielder Mia McKie, a Tuscarora from Sanborn, N.Y.

Last year, , Miller and other team leaders obtained a letter of approval from the Six Nations Confederacy Council in Ohsweken, Ontario. The letter was submitted to the International Federation of Women's Lacrosse Associations to allow the women to compete internationally as a sovereign nation under the confederacy's preferred name, Haudenosaunee, which is Mohawk for People of the Longhouse.

Last July, in Cardiff, Wales, the women's lacrosse association officially welcomed the Haudenosaunee as its 11th member nation.

This August, the team will compete in the lacrosse association's under- 19 world championship in Peterborough, Ontario, making it the first Native American women's team to compete as a full member. Although the team is still adding players through tryouts, half the roster will probably come from the 2005 Cup of Nations team. That includes Hill, 19, a walk-on last year at Syracuse.

''The Haudenosaunee team stepped up my game to make it at Syracuse,'' Hill said.

Other key players will include Lindsey Steeprock, 17, a Mohawk who is considered the top Native American female high school player. Next year, she plans to attend Syracuse and play lacrosse as a walk-on. Another teammate, Joni Squire-Hill, 17, a Mohawk and a freshman at SUNY Buffalo, had to convince her father that her lacrosse skills, and not only her brother's, were worthy of his attention.

Even after players and coaches told him how skilled Joni had become, ''it probably took me a good year to come around,'' said John Squire, an ironworker. Now he attends all her games.

Like many of her teammates, Squire-Hill knows she carries special responsibility. ''I want to make my mom and dad realize that I'm not doing it for myself, but for everybody around me,'' she said. ''I want to represent my reservation well.''

Photo: Amber Hill, a member of the Tuscarora tribe, is a goalie at Syracuse, which will play Vanderbilt today in the N.C.A.A. tournament. (Photo by Syracuse Athletic Communications)